And, as soon as their clamor somewhat ceased, he said, "I am Am-nem-hat of Ombos."

And when they saw the man's great age, and his calm and dignified deportment, they were somewhat abashed, and they cried out, "It is reported that thou hast forsaken the ancient gods of the Nile, and that thou hast fallen away into the atheism of the Christians."

Then the old man stood up straight and glorious before them, and he said: "Children, for fifty years I was in the great temple of Thebes, and was long time a priest. Twenty-and-five years I was high-priest at Ombos, always seeking for the truth. Then I discovered that the Christians alone know and worship the one true God, and I am with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, a Christian! Children, seek ye the same divine truth; the same glorious forgiveness, faith and light; the same redeeming love."

And he would truly have borne further testimony for Jesus, but from the outskirts of the crowd the high-priest shouted: "Away with this blasphemer! To the stake with the old renegade!" And the mob echoed the cry, shouting out vehemently: "Away with the atheist! To the stake with the ancient traitor!" And one of them standing near knocked down the old man with his pike; and, as many of them sprang forward to seize him, Theckla darted out of the door to his side, and with blazing eyes and extended hands she cried: "O cowards! brutes! The disgrace of Egypt, to strike down an old man like that! Stand back!"

And the men seemed abashed at the words and manner of the beautiful young girl, and stood irresolute until the high-priest called out, "Perhaps thou, also, art a Christian?"

And she said: "Yea! thank God, I am!"

Then all the more they shouted: "To the stake with the old atheist! The corrupter of our youth!"

And they forcibly pushed the maiden aside, and they lifted up Am-nem-hat, and set him upon his feet, and the soldiers haled him away to the vacant space in front of the great temple of Serapis, where were set up iron columns to which the wealthy visitors thereto were wont to hitch the horses that drew their chariots. And they chained the old man fast to one of these, and soon they built a great pyre round him out of the furniture of which they plundered Theckla's house, and other houses of Christians on that street. And they did set fire unto the pile, and by the first flames thereof Theckla beheld the calm and shining face of the beloved ancient gazing peacefully upon the mob. Then they lighted it in other places, and the girl went near to the edge of the fire, and she cried aloud: "Be thou of good cheer, O father Am-nem-hat! Thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with thee now!"

"Yea, daughter Theckla," answered the old man. "But go thou hence! The Lord is all-sufficient unto me! Go thou in peace!"

Then Theckla fell upon her knees before them all and prayed aloud, saying: "O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon him! Comfort, sustain, and strengthen him, and receive him into glory!"